Preface and Editorial

Abstract

Sociology sets out to develop the sociological imagination of those who study it, allowing us to think critically and reflexively about the social world around us and make sense of the relationship between our personal experiences and wider society. This approach to interrogating the world is embodied in this collection of critical reflections written by final year students on the BA (Hons) Sociology degree here at Leeds Beckett University. The essays in this volume underline both the breadth of the subject and its power to shed light on the familiar and the taken for granted. They tackle a wide range of contemporary issues: mail order brides, anorexia nervosa, occulture, genetic testing, service work, mental illness, fast fashion and voluntourism. To do this, they apply theory as an interrogative and explanatory tool, tackling these subjects through the lens of, for example, commodification, self-surveillance, risk society and post-colonialism, underlining its central role in Sociology.